His building industry experience includes office, institutional, laboratories, residential, mixed-use, and heath care facilities. Eesmyal was a LEED project reviewer for the Canada Green Building Council and has played a leading or support role on over 50 LEED projects. He is very active in the Vancouver green building community and serves on several committees and initiatives. In addition to his green building background, Eesmyal spent several years working for environmental organizations in the fields of renewable energy research and climate change education.

Eesmyal has co-founded and directs three non-profits that focus on creativity, sustainability and collaboration:

• HiVE Vancouver Society, a sustainability and creativity co-working space located at 128 West Hastings, Vancouver.
• Open Green Building Society, an NGO dedicated to the creation and advancement of freely available open-source green building resources.  The organization’s main project is the Green Building Brain.
• Vancouver Design Nerds Society, a network of collaborating designers and artists who share a desire to engage design opportunities with a spirit of creative play and to challenge the normative environment of the city.

Her role on these projects has varied from facilitation of the Integrated Design Process (IDP), architectural design, construction administration, and project management to facilities management for existing buildings, LEED coordination and sustainability consulting. The project scopes also vary – from the installation of an emergency generator at Robson Square to the LEED submission for the 1.5M square feet of the Vancouver Olympic Village. Brenda is deeply involved with the US and Canada Green Building Councils (USGBC and CaGBC) and has served the community in the following roles:

• Board of Directors, Cascadia Region Green Building Council
• CaGBC LEED Faculty
• CaGBC Technical Advisory Group (TAG) member
• NAIOP Development Issues Committee
• City of Vancouver Green Building Strategy Committee

All TAG members and LEED Faculty are selected based on their technical expertise. As a member of TAG, Brenda reviewed the original LEED Canada documentation, and now reviews Credit Interpretation Rulings and proposed updates. This advisory role provides the opportunity for involvement in the evolution of the LEED products as well as awareness of any developments that may affect current projects.

His experience as a mechanical designer and building simulation expert at Cobalt Engineering and Stantec Consulting, combined with solid theory in energy systems from his Master’s Degree in Building Services Engineering gives Jack a thorough and systematic understanding of energy-saving building designs. Jack has energy modelling experience with IES VE, TAS, EE4, and eQuest, and design experience in Heating, Ventilating, and Air-conditioning (HVAC), plumbing, and fire protection.

Jack’s skills and building energy analysis expertise enable him to communicate effectively with his clients and all members of the design team to successfully achieve high performance building designs.

Jack is listed as an experienced consultant for New Buildings by Natural Resources Canada and is a qualified third-party energy reviewer for LEED energy modelling.

In addition, Jack is an approved energy modeller for BC Hydro New Construction Program and a Certified Energy Manager of the Association of Energy Engineers.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia and a Master’s degree in Building Services Engineering from Loughborough University in UK.

Jason studied administration, economics and policy at Trent University before embarking on a series of backpacking adventures around the world, interspersed with stints planting trees in the Canadian north.

He moved to Vancouver in the mid 1990s and began working in the building trades. In an attempt to address the inefficiency and toxicity typical of the construction he saw, Jason began to offer green contracting services, with a particular interest in energy efficiency upgrades. This work grew into consulting, research and educational services as well and eventually lead back to school, focusing on building science and sustainability at BCIT’s Architecture and Building Engineering Technology program.

He has volunteered with a number of environmental organizations including the Lighthouse Sustainable Building Centre and is a member of the BC Sustainable Energy Association working to promote renewable sources of energy. Jason has worked on a number of LEED and Living Building Challenge projects and is particularly interested in LEED for Neighbourhood Development, urban design and community based solutions to environmental issues. Despite his fascination with sustainable buildings, technology and urban design, Jason is happiest outside in the woods.

Taryn earned her B.Sc. degree from University of Calgary majoring in geography, and has a keen interest in exploring the human-environment relationship at all scales. She is excited to bring enthusiasm and precision to all her projects at Recollective.

In her non-work life, Taryn loves collecting old, beautiful wood, and spending time in the workshop with her Dad. She is also an avid student of yoga and aspires to one-day live in her very own small, energy-efficient, green home with a workshop and a garden.

Landing in Vancouver in 2005, Melissa’s next move was working for non-profit and community based clients as a Development Manager for Terra Housing Consultants. Projects in her portfolio included residential, commercial and student union spaces. A highlight for Melissa at that time was spearheading the Inclusive Cities Conference of 2009, bringing consultants from the US and UK to share their affordable housing expertise.

Melissa integrates these complimentary architecture, project management and real estate development skills into her new role with Recollective and is driven to encourage green dialogue and promote sustainability in BC’s built environment.

Her prior work experience includes the federal and civic governments, and a variety of NGOs. She enjoys applying her knowledge of the green building community and strong organizational skills to her role as Office Manager for Recollective.

In her non-work life, Maura enjoys travelling and camping in BC, collecting art and pottery, and reading.

From 2003-6, she worked with reSource Rethinking Building in Vancouver on various commercial, residential and institutional green building and LEED consulting projects, including The Silva in North Vancouver, Canada’s first LEED certified condominium building.

Currently in Toronto, she is a frequent associate of Melissa Felder of Felder & Associates. Projects have included research reports, toolkits and analysis for the Toronto film and television production community; a toolkit for green building council creation for the World Green Building Council; reports for Corporate Knights magazine; primary research on energy efficiency market transformation for Union Gas and Enbridge; and analysis of the social and environmental return-on-investment of an LED lighting replacement strategy for CBC television.

Other independent work in Toronto has included brochure design for Right To Play International; design of a fundraiser presentation for Toronto’s Green Phoenix affordable housing complex; and website development tutoring with Sistering’s Inspirations Studio. She has also collaborated with organizations including Seeline Group Ltd, GreenSaver, Hilditch Architect, Work Worth Doing and Urban Space Property Group.

In her free time, she makes things out of clay, yarn and fabric, takes pictures and sings with her guitar. She also run the Toronto Design Nerds, a network of people interested in design, community and collaboration who get together to brainstorm on ideas and projects at events called Nerd Jams.

She has worked and volunteered in The Philippines, South Africa, Costa Rica, Chicago, Vancouver and Toronto; and has studied architecture in Rome and Spanish in Madrid. She has a Master of Architecture and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo, and is a LEED Accredited Professional.